News
Vodafone to Take Over T-Mobile?
(29 Jun 2009, BWCS Staff)Rumours are rife this morning that Vodafone may be about to launch an audacious bid to buy rival UK mobile operator T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom. However, it is far from clear that such a deal would meet with approval from British regulators. The UK-based Vodafone has a market share of some 25% and adding T-Mobile's 15% of the British market would place it in a very strong position and allow it to overtake rival O2, which has a 27% market share.
According to reports in the Financial Times this morning, T-Mobile's German parent company, is keen to sell its troubled offspring. The paper believes T-Mobile is worth between euros 3 billion and euros 4 billion. No-one at either company has yet commented on the story.
Last week several newspapers pointed out that Deutsche Telekom had appointed merchant bankers JP Morgan to advise it on "strategic options"; - these were thought to include a sale of T-Mobile.
The purchase, if it goes ahead, may help Vodafone achieve some of its goals in the recently announced £1 billion cost-cutting exercise that it is currently undergoing. The company was forced to write off £5.9 billion for the financial year to the end of March 2009, as its pre-tax profits slumped to £4.2 billion compared to £9 billion a year earlier
Back